And a short little glossary I was working on. I think it's still correct.:
Acceleration Drive: A drive based on the concept of maximum acceleration, not speed.
Fairly rare among the Fen. All Hard Tech spacecraft drives
are acceleration drives by necessity.
Cochrane Limit: The distance from a star, or other massive object where FTL
travel becomes possible. For Sol the radius is about 40AU.
More commonly called the C Limit, or just the Limit.
Divot, The: Fen name for the hole in the ground where the Island used to be.
It seems to annoy the 'danes for some reason.
Grey Goo: Industrial nanomachines. Any nanomachines used for manufacture
building, or otherwise constructive activities. There are other
kinds of goo, also named by colour:
Blue goo, police nanomachines that keep other nanomachines in
line. Also applied to medical nanites which help biological
systems (people) in good health and repair.
Black goo, weaponized nanomachines.
Grey Goo Disaster: The ISO standard nightmare about nanotechnology. Essentially
a kind of sorcerors apprentice mode failure where industrial
nanomachines escape control and convert the entire world into
more of themselves, a big blob of grey goo.
One of the reasons Handwavium is illegal in 'Danelaw is fear
of this sort of disaster.
Handwavium: What lets everything interesting happen. A strange substance
of indeterminate origin that when mixed with mundane technology
can give it strange and usefull properties.
Pure samples are capable of self replicating, albiet rather
slowly and with some odd limits. There does not appear to
be much if any danger of a Grey Goo disaster. The exact methods
by which it works remain unknown.
Illegal to manufacture and use in the 'Danelaw.
Has any number of names, including: Handwavium, Plot Tech,
Plotdevicite, Protoculture, etc.
See also 'Wavetech.
Hard Tech: Techonology that does not require Handwavium to work. Also
called Solid State Tech. What the 'danes insist on using.
Speed Drive: A ship's drive that works based the concept of absolute speed.
Most ships in SF and space opera on TV and in movies use
speed drives.
'Wavetech: Technology made with, or improved by the application of
handwavium. It works, but is notoriously quirky. Used mostly
by people who don't mind if their toaster starts conspiring
with their microwave to get them to eat better.
Acceleration Drive: A drive based on the concept of maximum acceleration, not speed.
Fairly rare among the Fen. All Hard Tech spacecraft drives
are acceleration drives by necessity.
Cochrane Limit: The distance from a star, or other massive object where FTL
travel becomes possible. For Sol the radius is about 40AU.
More commonly called the C Limit, or just the Limit.
Divot, The: Fen name for the hole in the ground where the Island used to be.
It seems to annoy the 'danes for some reason.
Grey Goo: Industrial nanomachines. Any nanomachines used for manufacture
building, or otherwise constructive activities. There are other
kinds of goo, also named by colour:
Blue goo, police nanomachines that keep other nanomachines in
line. Also applied to medical nanites which help biological
systems (people) in good health and repair.
Black goo, weaponized nanomachines.
Grey Goo Disaster: The ISO standard nightmare about nanotechnology. Essentially
a kind of sorcerors apprentice mode failure where industrial
nanomachines escape control and convert the entire world into
more of themselves, a big blob of grey goo.
One of the reasons Handwavium is illegal in 'Danelaw is fear
of this sort of disaster.
Handwavium: What lets everything interesting happen. A strange substance
of indeterminate origin that when mixed with mundane technology
can give it strange and usefull properties.
Pure samples are capable of self replicating, albiet rather
slowly and with some odd limits. There does not appear to
be much if any danger of a Grey Goo disaster. The exact methods
by which it works remain unknown.
Illegal to manufacture and use in the 'Danelaw.
Has any number of names, including: Handwavium, Plot Tech,
Plotdevicite, Protoculture, etc.
See also 'Wavetech.
Hard Tech: Techonology that does not require Handwavium to work. Also
called Solid State Tech. What the 'danes insist on using.
Speed Drive: A ship's drive that works based the concept of absolute speed.
Most ships in SF and space opera on TV and in movies use
speed drives.
'Wavetech: Technology made with, or improved by the application of
handwavium. It works, but is notoriously quirky. Used mostly
by people who don't mind if their toaster starts conspiring
with their microwave to get them to eat better.